UN: Rights violations rising
2008-11-26 16:03
New York - There has been a recent surge in human rights violations in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with civilians suffering at the hands of government and rebel forces alike, a new report by the UN chief said on Tuesday.
Since the last report in July, "the human rights situation remained a cause for grave concern", Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council in the report that held government forces and police largely responsible for the abuses.
The "serious human rights violations", he said, included "arbitrary executions, rape, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment".
"Congolese and foreign armed groups ... also perpetrated serious human rights abuses with impunity," he added in a copy of the report obtained by AFP.
The UN chief was referring to the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebel force of Laurent Nkunda, the Congolese PARECO resistance fighters, the pro-government Mai-Mai militia, the Rwandan rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
The violations by these groups, Ban said, included "mass killings, torture, abductions, forced recruitment of children, forced displacement and destruction of IDPs (refugee) camps, forced labour, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence."
He estimated at more than 250 000 the number of people displaced in DRC since the fighting resumed in August.
"By early November, the humanitarian community estimated that nearly 70% of the population in North Kivu was either displaced or hosting internally displaced persons," he added.
North Kivu has for three months been the centre of bloody combats between the CNDP and government forces and their allies, who in the past few weeks have been defeated by a CNDP advance that in late October brought it close to the provincial capital Goma.
Since Friday, no combats have been reported in the area but the situation is very tense in the region 1 500km east of the country's capital Kinshasa.
The UN Human Rights Council said Tuesday it will hold a special session on DRC on Friday, following reports of heavy civilian casualties in the fighting.
The decision followed a request by France on behalf of European Union countries and others including Argentina, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland and Ukraine, the council said in a statement out of Geneva.